


The Sins of the Father

by techieturnover



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Admiral Hennessey doesnt have a first name because shrug emoji, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, give james a hug 2020, just a giant fix it for james' relationship with his daddy, thats it, thats the fic, this is my attempt at fixing james' relationship with hennessey, thomas pops in at the end because he said so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:48:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22027336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/techieturnover/pseuds/techieturnover
Summary: “The son shall not suffer for the sins of the father-”For a moment James pays the voice no mind, so set is he on drowning his demons that he doesn’t notice how similar it sounds to them.“The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw & Admiral Hennessey, Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton
Comments: 5
Kudos: 62





	The Sins of the Father

**Author's Note:**

> This is something of a sequel/companion fic to another fic that is set earlier but that i'm still working on but it stands by itself. I have no other notes, other than that I would like 2020 to be the year James gets several hugs.

_“-it is too profane, too loathsome, to be dismissed.”_

Three years after his rise and fall in Nassau, two after he has Thomas back, one after they have escaped the plantation in Georgia and settled outside of Boston - so many after England has forgotten the name McGraw - Admiral Hennessey’s words still echo in James’ thoughts. 

They keep him from trusting the new people he and Thomas have welcomed into their lives; from being happy in a way he so desperately wants. He had been so sure that he had a confidante in the man he had called father, that the man would defend him. And like so many other times, he had been wrong. 

_“Be thankful it didn’t happen on the gallows.”_

The words - echoing Miranda’s warning just hours before - had cut deep. He had told Miranda there was no risk in raising the plan to Hennessey and his naivety had cost them everything. 

He can feel the memory of that pain straining his relationship with Thomas around the edges. He can feel it pulling them taught and he is terrified that one day it will break them that Thomas will have grown out of his fear of men as James only grows more staunchly into it. 

The pain of that thought leads him to drain the last of the beer in his cup and signal for another. A man sits down beside him as his next attempt to drown the voices in his head arrives. 

“The son shall not suffer for the sins of the father-” 

For a moment James pays the voice no mind, so set is he on drowning his demons that he doesn’t notice how similar it sounds to them. 

“The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

Panicked, James looks up to meet the gaze of a man at once too familiar and too strange. Admiral Hennessey sits next to him. His face is more lined and the thinning grey hair on his head is his own not a wig, and James stumbles up and off his barstool before he’s aware he’s doing it. 

“What are you doing here?” the words sound terrified, even to his own voice. He feels small, like a child who has been caught doing something he shouldn't. He hates himself all the more for the absolute fear that runs through him.

Hennessey raises his hands in a pacifying gesture, still seated. He has no weapons, James realizes, and he is wearing common clothing instead of a naval uniform. There is no one else with him and James is closer to the exit. He knows Hennessey knows these things too.

“I want to talk to you.” 

Anger repaces panic, fast enough to give him whiplash, and to make him want to vomit. 

“You lost all rights to talk to me.”

“I know. But I mean you no harm, now. I’d like to apologize.” The older man’s arms are still raised, his voice soft.

James wants so desperately to believe him. He wants so desperately to repair the wound that has been bleeding in his heart for over a decade. 

He knows it’s mad to want to do so. 

“How did you find me.” 

“Pure chance. I heard about a Thomas Hamilton making a name for himself in the colonies and when I arrived I heard he had a companion named James.” Hennessey looks away. “I had thought the both of you dead.” 

James has half a beat to relish that Thomas is rebuilding himself well enough for his name to be spoken in England before the anger sets back in. “You have no right to think on either of us. Not after what your actions cost us.” A decade of torment, of pain and loss. Miranda’s _life_. “Whatever apology you want to offer is thirteen years too late. I don’t want it and I won’t offer you the solace of my forgiveness.” 

“Please, James, hear me out.” 

He knows he shouldn’t. In point of fact, James wishes he could walk away, that he could show the same callous disdain for the other man that he had been shown years ago. He wishes he could walk away and back into the house he shares with Thomas and forget he has seen the ghost of the man he once called Father. The man he once trusted. Looking at Hennessey now, though, James cannot deny the very real sorrow behind his eyes. Nor can he deny that a part of him wants this relationship back. He has been without his father for so long that even if it is only going to tear him to pieces again, a part of him wants to take the risk just for the chance to be a little bit more whole again.

“Not here.” 

He stands, and Hennessey follows. He isn’t sure exactly where he is going when he drops a few coins on the table and walks out the tavern door but he isn’t exactly surprised when he ends up at the door of his own house. It is the place he feels safest in the world. He turns around and faces Hennessey.

“I share this house with Thomas.” His voice is firmer than he feels. “My price for hearing you out is that you enter, and that you not hold any ill will towards either of us. I hope you will believe me when I say I am no longer a man who would hesitate to kill you if you threaten what little peace I have found here.” 

“I am here to apologize. I mean neither of you any more harm than I have already caused.” 

James weighs the answer before opening the door. He has allowed Hennessey this far and a large part of him wants to hear what the other man has to say; another part of him feels the fierce need to protect himself and Thomas from any chance of danger, of being separated again. 

He opens the door anyway.

Although the house is dark he calls out for Thomas. The silence that answers him is unsurprising considering he’d been out drinking because Thomas had gone to a meeting with his colleagues and James hadn’t been able to stand being in the house alone. There is still the small fear that settles in his stomach that Thomas might not return. It is always there - the fear that Thomas will once again be taken from him.

He leads Hennessey into the sitting room. Age has not been kind to either of them, he thinks as he watches as the old man sinks gingerly into the offered chair. James himself sits heavily and waits for the other man to speak.

“I want you to know that I am incredibly sorry. For not hearing you out. For listening to that fool of a Lord and not trusting my own knowledge of you.

“I learned only some time after your exile that the earl had attempted to cover your affair with Thomas, with the lie that you and his wife had plotted against them both. That the knowledge of that affair had driven Thomas mad.”

James starts in surprise at the old lie. “What?” 

“Hamilton had lied to me, it seems, to garner my favor against you. He had told me that you and Miranda Hamilton had conspired against Thomas while also taking up intimately with each other.” 

“You told me I was vile, loathsome, that I could have been hanged-”

“For treason, son. For betraying the duty that you had sworn to take on in helping Alfred Hamilton and his son against the pirates of Nassau. I believed you had violated that trust that not only he, but I, had placed in you..” 

“You didn’t know about my relationship with Thomas.” 

“No.” 

James’ breath comes short at the revelation.

“But you do now. You know that he and I share more than just friendship. That we are lovers.” 

“You would not be the first man I know to hold more than a passing interest in other men, James. Truth be told, I was less surprised at that revelation than that you had been traitorous to those I had entrusted to your care.” 

James is reeling. He is already sitting but his head is spinning and he leans back for the full support of the chair he sits in. 

“James.” Hennessey leans towards him. “I cannot truly tell you how sorry I am. When I learned of Hamilton’s treachery I did everything in my power to have him ousted from Whitehall. He escaped before the final effects could befall him in a bid for the new world, but his ship was felled by pirates before he reached his destination.” 

That strikes James. 

“The pseudonym. He was hiding from you.”

“I confess I was not as incensed as I could have been to learn what fate had befallen him.”

It is at that exact moment James realizes that Hennessey does not know about James being Flint. He has a split second to consider that telling Hennessey about his identity for the ten years he was in exile might cost him any chance of repairing their relationship. But then the other man speaks again;

“How did you know he was traveling under an assumed name?”

James takes a breath and lifts his gaze to look directly into Hennessey’s eyes. “Because I killed him.” He watches as comprehension dawns and Hennessey’s expression changes. 

Shock, disbelief, horror, anger, they all cross his mentor’s face until he finally settles on something that looks like grief. “You are Captain Flint.”

“I was.”

“No longer?”

“I was out maneuvered by someone close to me. I was given the choice of death or giving in. At the same time I learned of Thomas’ survival; I confess had he not truly been alive I might have fought on.” 

Hennessey is silent for a moment before he shakes his head. “You have paid tenfold for my actions, as has Thomas and I expect the Lady Hamilto-”

“Miranda is dead.” The words still bite as they leave his mouth. “She was killed by a man in Peter Ashe’s employ.”

“I did not know.” Another realization plays across Hennessey’s face. “Charlestown.”

“In response for her murder.” 

“...I am sorry.”

“Why did you listen to him?” 

It is the question that has been tormenting him since that day. Why the man he had trusted entirely and looked up to as a father figure had not even given him the chance to explain himself. 

“In truth, I could tell you the reasons why I listened to him. I could tell you that he had convinced me you were dangerous, that my own son could also be plotting against me. I could tell you of all the evidence he supplied to me through Lord Ashe but in the end, I listened to the wrong voice, and that is the truthful answer. I am ashamed to say I did not follow the very advice I had given you that you took to heart.”

_“-the measure of a man is in the moment in which he is confronted by himself, by opposing voices in his head, both arguing that they are right but that one must be wrong. That to know the difference in that moment is what makes an officer and a man.”_

James considers, reigns in the gut reaction that is to throw Hennessey out of his house. He wants to forgive him, James realizes. He wants to believe that Alfred Hamilton had not only managed to take Thomas from him, but his father as well. And if that is true, he realizes he wants this back. 

“I truly am sorry, James. If you’ll allow it, I would like to do what is in my power to make amends.” The apology feels heartfelt, but the wound, after years of festering, is not ready to close just yet.

He stands. “It’s quite late. Thomas will be home soon.” Hennessey stands too, unsure. “You should be heading back to wherever you are staying.”

“James?” 

“I - need some time.”

He seems disappointed but the other man nods. “Of course.” He puts his hat back on as they reach the door and James realizes he doesn’t truly even know what became of the Admiral after he had left London.

“Are you staying for a while?” 

“I have nowhere else to be, in truth. I have no family since my wife passed, and you were my only progeny, blood or otherwise.” So he is alone. James feels guilt and sorrow mingling with the breath he draws.

“Call on me next week. I would - like to have you in my life again.”

The smile Hennessey gives him is unmistakably prideful. “You are a good man, James. I am glad to have found you again. Please give Thomas my regards.” 

He leaves, and James stands in the doorway watching him leave, then for a while afterwards. He is still there when Thomas returns a short time later. The magic of seeing Thomas Hamilton come into his view still never ceases to take him by surprise. Thomas doesn’t even make it up the steps before James has pulled him into a tight embrace, kissing him in full view of anyone who might happen by. 

“Hello, love,” Thomas says when they pull apart, both joy and confusion clear in his voice. James feels shaky but here, in Thomas’ arms, he is on solid ground. 

“I spoke with Admiral Hennessey tonight,” he says without preamble and he feels Thomas’ arms tighten around him. “He...wants to make amends.”

“Do you want to let him?” There is no judgement in Thomas’ voice. He will follow whatever James feels is necessary and James feels yet another surge of love for him. 

“I do. I asked to meet with him next week.” 

“Well then I believe a celebration is in order. Let’s head inside before I freeze to death, and you can tell me about your eventful evening.” 

“Don’t tell me you accomplished nothing of consequence at your meeting.” At the annoyance that crosses Thomas’ face James cannot help but laugh as they head inside. 

“Every last one of them is all zeal and no brains,” he complains, and James feels his equilibrium returning. He realizes, though, as he watches Thomas move around the home they share, that something that had been aching before has quieted. He had known he was still at war with himself over Hennessey’s decades old betrayal, but he hadn’t had a clue what a difference having the man’s blessing would heal inside him. 

He is, he realizes, going to be all right.


End file.
